Editorial Conventions and How to Cite

Editorial Conventions (Vom Musikalisch-Schönen)

Alexander Wilfing and Meike Wilfing-Albrecht, 2023

This edition is based on the ten versions of Eduard Hanslick’s aesthetic treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen: Ein Beitrag zur Revision der Ästhetik der Tonkunst (On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music), published between 1854 and 1902 in occasionally revised textual versions. Whereas editions 1 to 3 (1854–1865) were published by Rudolph Weigel (Leipzig), Johann Ambrosius Barth (Leipzig) produced the treatise from edition 4 onward (1874–1902). Other sources, like sketches, setting copies, proof copies, etc., are no longer known today, since Hanslick’s estate was lost during the Second World War. The printed copies are thus the only available templates for our digital edition. The articles or chapters from which this treatise presumably originates, some of which were published in advance (see the first two entries under “Eduard Hanslick’s Writings”), did not figure into this edition. (They will be provided as part of a newly granted research project.)

The editions of the original treatise—transcribed and corrected by Meike Wilfing-Albrecht—are reproduced as faithfully as possible; the spelling is retained. Errors that were corrected by Hanslick himself within the editions—e.g., the change from “psychisch” (psychic) to “physisch” (physical), 2.13, from edition 9 onward—are also reproduced faithfully. Only evident errata (e.g., “Mnsik” instead of “Musik,” 5.6, in edition 3) have been corrected without indication. Paragraphs are maintained (except for in poems), and changes between editions are indicated by the following markers: contraction → &; subdivision → a and b; addition → 3rd decimal place; deletion → number gap. A revised collation feature is currently being developed. Page numbers and breaks can either be shown or masked via the “Annotations” menu. Verse breaks are indicated by slashes /. We have converted the footnotes to endnotes with jump marks and numbered them consecutively instead of using the original asterisks * to provide a more precise attribution. Up to edition 7, the headings of individual chapters were only displayed in the table of contents. For purposes of manageable navigation, we have incorporated them into the transcription of editions 1–7.

The printed copies of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen contain several fonts, the meticulous reproduction of which, however, did not seem sensible for a digital edition. The German main text is set in Fraktur script throughout, while Latin, French, Italian, or English passages are usually produced in Latin typeface (especially prominent in the extended original French quotation in 2.43, but also, for example, in “Dr.” on the title page). Since this difference in typeface has no semantic relevance, the present edition refrains from any respective visual demarcation. Text passages formatted in bold face, however, are reproduced according to the templates (cf. 1.31). In the original, moreover, textual emphases are marked with spaced letters, which have been turned into italics for our online edition.

Whereas the facsimiles of editions 1 and 4–10 were digitized and prepared by Alexander Wilfing and Mehmet Emir, the MDZ provides premium digital copies of editions 2 and 3. The music examples shown in chapters 2.19, 2.25 and 2.28 (edition 1), as well as 2.19 and 2.17 (editions 2–10), have been typeset anew and arranged according to the original template by our colleague Vasiliki Papadopoulou, for which we thank her sincerely. Only the bracket breaks diverge from the original, as they are only due to the smaller printing format of the respective hard copy and thus have no semantic validity. Hanslick probably had the musical examples set for this specific purpose, but their print templates are not known either. In the example of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Che farò” (2.27, from edition 2 onward), the deviations in syllable division between editions are not indicated separately. These can be checked against the respective facsimile reproduction.

Editorial Conventions (Hanslick’s Writings for the Neue Freie Presse and the Reviews of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen)

Alexander Wilfing, 2024

The guidelines for the edition of Hanslick’s writings for the Neue Freie Presse and the reviews of the initial edition of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen for the most part match those specified for his aesthetic treatise. They thus will only be defined insofar as they differ from the principles explicated above. Footnotes, for example, are indicated by asterisks * according to the original template, since they occur only rarely and, compared to Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, as part of shorter essays.

For now, the edition is based chiefly on Hanslick’s extensive feuilletons “below the line,” clearly marked by the initials “Ed. H.,” from 1864 onward, the founding year of Neue Freie Presse, to 1904, the year of his death. These texts (about 900 items) typically appear in 3 columns on the first 2–3 pages of an issue. Other music-related writings contained in Neue Freie Presse will then follow, provided Hanslick can be reasonably considered to have authored them. Alexander Wilfing initially created a register of these texts in 2011 as part of Christoph Landerer’s research project “Nietzsche’s Reception of Hanslick” via ANNO, which he later expanded significantly. The digital copies we provide in addition to the TEI/XML text are also obtained from ANNO (Austrian Newspaper Online). For purely pragmatic reasons, the editors proceed in ascending and descending order as regards chronology.

Wilfing also identified the 26 reviews of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen through various repositories (ANNO, DZP, JSTOR, etc.) and the appendix of Mark Evan Bonds’s Absolute Music: The History of an Idea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 301–307. These reviews were published between 1854 and the end of 1857, when the second edition of Hanslick’s aesthetic treatise was released, judging by an advertisement in the Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel (December 14, 1857, 2). The length of these texts varies from brief, single-page reviews to extensive multi-part critiques, such as those by Emil Kuh (Der Humorist, 18, no. 305, 1219; 18, no. 306, 1223; 18, no. 309, 1235), Franz Brendel (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 42, no. 8, 77–82; 42, no. 9, 89–91; 42, no. 10, 97–100), and Ludwig Bischoff (Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung, 3, no. 7, 49–53; 3, no. 8, 57–60; 3, no. 9, 65–66; 3, no. 10, 73–75).

Collection, Selection, and Presentation of Data

Alexander Wilfing, 2024

The TEI annotation of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen was provided by Alexander Wilfing, who oversaw the entire edition process. For the edition of Hanslick’s writings for the Neue Freie Presse, Wilfing was assisted by Katharina Bamer and Anna-Maria Pfiel, the latter also being responsible for transcribing and annotating the reviews of the initial edition of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen. While the XML/TEI files for the ten editions of Hanslick’s aesthetic treatise were generated from Word files, the project members transcribes, proofread, and annotation the other texts with the help of Transkribus. Formatting and editorial finishing touches were carried out via the XML editor Oxygen. Information pertaining to named entities is collected, interlinked, and referenced via a custom Baserow database. The digital edition is built on the “DSE Static Cookiecutter” framework developed by ACDH-CH, a static-site generator for XML/TEI-encoded digital editions.

Given the sizable volume of texts—amounting to circa 2,000,000 words—the annotation is initially limited to (historical and fictional) people, works (music, texts, images), and places. Additional categories of named entities, such as buildings, groups, and events, may be added in coming project phases. Users can toggle the display of all or individual entity categories via the “Annotations” menu. When activated, the annotations are displayed as icons, with colors that correspond to the entity types listed in said menu. Clicking on an icon presents essential information about the entity, while more detailed data is available via the “Weitere Details” link. These detail view pages can be reached either directly from the icons or through the indexes of persons, places, and works, offering both data and a summary of mentions of the selected entities in Hanslick’s writings.

The following datasets are currently being created:

• For locations, both the local language name(s) and the name used by Hanslick are recorded. Standard data identifiers such as the URI of GeoNames are included. The remaining datasets (Wikidata, GND, geographical coordinates, etc.) are automatically queried and added through a pipeline from the GeoNames and Wikidata API, designed by Daniel Elsner. All names of people, works, and places are transliterated into Latin script, and a “Überprüft” (“checked”) tag indicates whether the data has been double-checked.
• For fictional characters, both their original names and those used by Hanslick are listed, and all figures are linked to the relevant work entry. We however avoid multiple links: for example, there are six separate entities named “Faust” from works by Berlioz, Boito, Goethe, Gounod, Spohr, and Schumann. This principle allows for greater transparency in the statistical evaluation of mentions of named entities. For deities and mythological characters mentioned independently of works, available standard identifiers (GND and Wikidata) are included where available.
• For historical characters, we record the spelling according to GND and include Hanslick’s variants. In addition, life data and a maximum of three occupations, functions, or activities are entered manually. Birthdates and professional descriptions are drawn (where available) from widely used encyclopedias such as ÖML, ÖBL, PMB, MGG, Grove, and the lexicon of the Sophie Drinker Institute. The remaining datasets (Wikidata and links to ÖML, ÖBL, and PMB) are automatically queried and added through a pipeline from the Wikidata API.
• For works, we follow a similar method, giving both the original headings and those used by Hanslick. Works are linked to their creator(s) and figures named by Hanslick; parts of works are further linked to the main work. However, only autonomous parts of works (e.g., a song from a cycle) are recorded separately; movements from a violin sonata and the like are linked to the entire sonata. Additional datasets include GND numbers and links to open access digital copies (IMSLP, MDZ, DTA, archive.org, or Google Books, if no other source is available).

The main goal of the review project is to produce a digital edition of Hanslick’s writings for the Neue Freie Presse to address specific research questions. Due to resource constraints, the efforts to identify every person and work had to be limited. If a named entity cannot be definitively identified, it is marked with the note “unklarer Bezug” (unclear reference). Ambiguous indications of works—as in the case of, for example, Schubert’s “A-Moll-Sonate” (Sonata in A minor), which Hanslick mentions on December 1, 1864, without further clarification of which piano sonata he is currently speaking (D537, D784, or D845)—are indicated through multiple linked entities, up to a maximum of five links. Feedback on errors and data gaps is always welcome!

The listing of spelling variants for names and works ensures that a user can, for example, successfully search the index for Niccolò Piccinni, whom Hanslick at times spells “Picinni” and “Piccini,” or Offenbachs Les Géorgiennes, which he names “Die Georgierinnern,” “Die schönen Georgierinnen,” and “Die schönen Weiber von Georgien,” respectively. In the case of names and places, only names and places themselves and terms directly related to them are marked, not groups of people that have such references. For example, “Griechenland” and “griechisch” are annotated, “Griechen,” however, are not, which then also applies to “Gluck” and “Piccini”, as opposed to “Gluckisten” and “Piccinisten” (2.43). Such terms can of course be found via a full-text search. Additional categories of named entities (buildings, groups, events, etc.) are planned, pending additional funding.